Author: Craig Calderone

I haven’t written about my dog yet and after watching “This is us” on NBC, I felt like it was a good time to start.

My dog’s name is Bella. She is a 1 year old pitbull, lab, terrier mix. I adopted her in July of 2016. She’s brought a lot of happiness, excitement and some stress.

But most of all, she’s allowed me to explore my neighborhood more. I’ve lived in New York city for over 7 years now, and I’ve talked to more random people in the past 7 months with my dog, than I have in the previous 7 years.

When I walk her around the city, we see the same dog owners around walking their dogs too. It’s not something that I thought could be achieved in a city so big as Manhattan. When I started walking around, I began to stop and appreciate the little things, stop to just walk and not run in a New York minute.

Life can get very busy in a city so big, but when I break it down to little things, it doesn’t seem so big at all.

I’m on a plane flying to San Francisco right now. I’ll be there for two weeks. This trip isn’t vacation, although I’m sure it will be plenty of fun. I accepted an offer as a Sales Engineer at Leanplum!!

It’s no secret that mobile phones dominate our lives and time. I’m excited to be more involved in the mobile app and tech ecosystem that is the future of how humans interact with computers. With the ever changing tech industry, it’s a relief to know that I’ll be working in the mobile world which isn’t disappearing anytime soon.

With a new job, also comes meeting new people. We often spend more time with our coworkers than our friends and family, so this factor is crucial. And knowing that Leanplum went through Techstars is reassuring me that the company is made up of good people.

I’m excited and happy to move on to a new opportunity. It’s tough to leave past coworkers, but at the end of the day, it’s important to me to continue to meet new people, learn new skills and grow into new places.

I find that watching films sparks my compelling nature to write. I just finished watching Bridge of Spies. It can be a bit slow at times but I do recommend it. The reason I mention this movie is that it’s a Tom Hanks film about prisoner negotiation in the Cold War.

The movie brings up good points of negotiating tactics but also negotiating subtleties that don’t seem like negotiations at first but in fact turn out to be crucial bargaining chips.

Whether we realize it or not, consciously or unconsciously, everything in life is a negotiation. I saw this all too prevalent in my most recent trip to Mexico as well. I couldn’t walk down the street without be offered some good or service. T-shirt negotiation almost became a game at one point. They started at $25, a piece, then the further you walked into town and the more people you talked to, the lower the price went. We wound up getting 3 T-shirts for $30.

Negotiating terms in a deal have certain similarities. The main key is knowing how far you can push and pull without losing everything.

I recently watch the movie “we are your friends” and kinda liked it. It was a flick about a entrepreneurs and how an uninown dj makes it.

The moral that I got which came at the very end, was to make it, you have to be genuine and honest in what it is you’re doing. Dont do something because someone tells you. Don’t imitate because its whats hot right now. Listen to the world that you live in right now and find something that helps you connect with the world and the people living in it.

I watched the Mars National Geographic special last night (if you haven’t watched it yet, I recommend it). The show is an interesting combination of SpaceX in the present time and a future story in 2033 where mankind actually lands on Mars to set up a colony.

At one time, and probably still, I wanted to be an astronaut. It’s amazing to see that people are moving mankind forward and thinking beyond just planet Earth.

It’s not out of the question that in my lifetime I will see the human race reach another planet. I’m into science fiction and this is moving beyond fiction into actual reality.

Today was the NYC marathon. It was an amazing sight to see the entire city support the runners on their physical accomplishment.

I walked outside to see the crowd on 1st ave on the upper east side and it was spectacular! So many fans cheering for everyone that ran past them. It looked like a great turnout.

The marathon is a very inspiring thing to watch and it makes me want to train for one. I’m not a long distance runner but I consider myself athletic. I’m going to start with some small runs and build up to it, although I think I will try to complete a triathlon before.

I started to go back to the gym the past couple weeks. I know it’s important for my health and I should go more often. But when it’s so nice out I don’t feel the need to spend hours inside the gym.

I keep this habit up in the fall / winter and colder months by marking the day off with an X on a white board calendar. It’s this little satisfaction that keeps the habit going; besides that fact that I feel better when I work out my body.